52 Men of the Bible - The StudiesSample

# 44\. The Band of Brothers ## Explore During this chapter, you can have a quick look at the disciples, this mix up of men who were brought together and tasked with the most amazing job ever. To follow Jesus and live out the life they saw for others to see Jesus. Idea 1: Honesty Part of my job is to go around the UK encouraging churches to help men form men’s groups, groups that sharpen faith but also share a gospel and evangelistic heartbeat. Within these groups, we have seen incredible levels of honesty, that men have been able to share deeply of their lives, faults, frustrations and doubts, and also find healing and progress too. What does honesty look like in your group? Is it happening, how often? Does it feel like a safe place to share, where conversations will stay within the confines of the group? Idea 2: Vulnerability I have also discovered that in truth, men want to and can do vulnerability together but it often needs to be gradually built into the DNA of the group and helps if it is whilst you are doing something. Building something, cooking something, watching something, walking a hill together or eating a curry…the point is vulnerability will happen but in the right ways. Jesus allowed space for his disciples to explore their vulnerability, it gave them opportunity to try stuff, get it wrong and learn. As Christian men, being vulnerable with others is not easy and won’t always happen in the 18 minutes between the end of church and you having a cuppa and going home. It needs to be a little bit more worked out than that. Do you need a men’s group? A band of brothers who get you, challenge you, inspire you and love you as a brother? Idea 3: Affirmation Often as men we seek affirmation, and that can come from both positive and negative sources if it needs to be. We often crave those words ‘nice job’ or ‘you did well’ and if we can’t find it from praise we seek it from other avenues. Affirmation is not always easy to give and I think it is even harder to receive from others, but as this dynamic is built and shaped in the men’s group I believe men will grow from it. When we are in a place that allows this affirmation to be spoken into our lives and genuinely accepted, it can be such an empowering place to be. Have you experienced this? Would you even want it? ## Action These things won’t happen overnight but they do need to be built in, shaped and modelled if this stuff is going to get locked into the DNA of our lives, and being in an active and focused group of other men will help loads.